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To the People of the United States. 



The Executive Committee of the New England Emigrant 
Aid Compamj respectfully ask your attention to the foU 
lowing facts. 

In consequence of the errors and misrepresentations in regard to the 
Emio-rant Aid Company of Massachusetts, contained in a Report made to 
the Senate of the United States by the Chairman of the Committee on 
Territories, March 12, 1856; and the repetition of the misstatements and 
apparent adoption of the conclusions of the Report by members of both 
houses of Congress, in their published speeches ; the undersigned have 
been led to prepare a plain statement of the facts of the case, to expose 
the grave mistakes of the Report and of those who have adopted its erro- 
neous views, and to place before the country a true account of the designs 
and objects of this association. 

As most of the objections which have been urged in various quarters 
against this Company are collected and embodied in the Report, our pur- 
pose will be best attained by an examination of that document. We pro- 
ceed therefore to notice some of its more prominent errors and misstate- 
ments. 

I. There is no such " mammoth moneyed corporation," " with a capital 
of five millions of dollars," " to control the institutions of Kansas," as 
the Report supposes. There never has been such an one. The act quoted 
by the Report was passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1854, but 
no complete organization ever took place under it, and it was soon aban- 
doned. The New England Emigrant Aid Company, which is the only 
incorporated society in Massachusetts connected with the emigration to 
Kansas, was chartered in 1855. Its capital is limited by its charter to one 
million of dollars, but in point of fact the capital of the Company, actually 
paid in, has never exceeded one hundred thousand dollars. 

II. The act of incorporation does not, as the Report suggests, make the 
State of Massachusetts a party to the proceedings of this Company. The 
design of a charter of incorporation, as is well known, is to enable an 
association of individuals to act together more conveniently and safely in 
the transaction of its business. A State granting a charter does not render 
itself responsible for the acts of the Company thereby created ; and the 
State of Massachusetts, although doubtless approving of its objects, is no 
more accountable for the transactions of this Company than for those of 
the numerous Companies chartered by its Legislature for religious, educa- 
tional, mining, manufacturing, or other purposes. 

III. The Report attributes to the Company the origin of all the trouble! 
in Kansas, by ita " unauthorized and improper schemes of foreign inter- 



2 

ference with the internal affairs and domestic concerns of the Territory," 
and its " attempt to violate or circumvent the principles and provisions of 
the act of Congress for the organization of Kansas and Nebraska." 

The fact is directly the reverse of what is here stated; and a regard for 
truth and justice should have led to a careful inquiry into the facts, before 
these assertions were made. This Company has never " interfered with 
the internal affairs of the Territory." It has never attempted to "violate 
or circumvent" any act of Congress. It has never, as a Company, op- 
posed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 

The Company was formed to aid in the permanent settlement of the 
Territory of Kansas by a free and intelligent population. In the prosecu- 
tion of this purpose, it had reason to expect the approval and co-operation 
of Congress. It anticipated that, in accordance with the true intent of 
the Kansas-Nebraska Act, all citizens of the United States who should go 
to settle in Kansas, would receive the protection of the Government. 

The Territory of Kansas cannot properly be spoken of as in any sense 
" foreign " to Massachusetts. Like the other Territories of the United 
States, it is the common property of all the States. It belongs to Massa- 
chusetts and Vermont, as well as to Missouri or Iowa. The citizens of 
every State have an equal right to go there, or to aid others to go, either 
individually or by means of associated capital. By the Kansas-Nebraska 
Act, the people of those Territories were lell "perfectly free to form and 
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way." Whatever may be 
the individual opinions of the members of this association as to the con- 
stitutionality, justice, or expediency, of this Act, the Company has accepted 
it as the law of the land until it should be repealed, and has never violated 
or evaded it. All its action, on the contrary, has been perfectly consistent 
with the principles and provisions of the law. 

Upon the removal by Congress of all restriction upon the future institu- 
tions of Kansas, and the granting to actual settlers the right to determine 
their character, that Territory was regarded by all parties, both at the South 
and the North, as thrown open to free competition for settlement, by emi- 
grants from all parts of the country. This fact has been recognised by 
leading men in the Southern States as well as at the North, and warm 
appeals have been made to the patriotism and moral sentiment, as well as 
to the interest and the political prejudices of all sections of the Union. 
These appeals find a ready response from the people. Public meetings of 
citizens have been held in many of the States, and societies formed, to 
aid in the settlement of the Territory, and to assist in the work of found- 
ing a new State. 

The Report asserts that this Company was the first association formed 
to "control the institutions" of the new Territory; and assumes that the 
Southern Societies exist only as a " natural consequence " of its operations. 
But we have abundant evidence that, before the organization of this Com- 
pany, associations were formed and in active operation in Missouri, to " in- 
terfere with the internal affairs " of the Territory, in a manner neither legal 
nor justifiable. Indeed, the existence of a wide-spread desire and inten- 
tion, on the part of the Southern States, to use all practicable means to 
control the institutions of Kansas, has been so openly and repeatedly avowed, 
that it needs no proof. The whole charge therefore against this Company, 
that it has been the occasion of the difficulties in Kansas, on the ground of 
its assumed priority of action, is totally destitute of foundation. 

This Company has employed associated capital, and organized under a 
charter, for the convenience of its business. But the use of associated 



capital is a common principle of all societies, and has never, so far as W8 
know, been objected to, except in the case of this Company ; and the or- 
ganization under a charter, so far from implying any design to " violate or 
circumvent" the law, is dhect evidence of a contrary intent. It is, in fact, 
from the "improper and unauthorized" acts of unchartered and illegal 
societies, that the greatest danger to the institutions of Kansas has arisen. 

Although the associations formed at the North have, no doubt, different 
objects and different methods of action from those of the Southern States, 
the rights of all of them are equal under the Act, so long as their proceed- 
ings are conformable to the laws. The citizens of the Southern States 
have not, in general, shown the same disposition with those of the North, 
to emigrate to Kansas, or to aid others to go there for permanent settlement ; 
but they have fully recognised their right to do this, and declared their in- 
tention to exercise it. That they have failed to act more efficiently for this 
object, is not, perhaps, owing so much to the want of a desire to extend 
heir peculiar institutions into the Territory, as to other causes. 

While the objects and action of this Company are severely condemned 
by the Report, we find in it no censure of the " unauthorized and im- 
proper interference" of. Southern Societies in the affairs of the Territory. 
Indeed, the language of the Report would lead to the inference that the 
Kansas-Nebraska Act was especially designed for the benefit of those in- 
dividuals and societies who seek to render the institutions of Kansas con- 
genial to those of Missouri. Their action is spoken of as simply " defeu' 
sive," while that of the Massachusetts Company is characterized as "ag- 
gressive;" those therefore, it would seem, who favor the establishment 
of free institutions in Kansas, are guilty of acts of aggression; while 
those who aim to plant Slavery there, are acting only on the defensive, and 
are not liable to the charge of endeavoring to " violate or circumvent" the 
Kansas-Nebraska Act. 

But whatever may be the views of the Report in regard to the design and 
effect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the people of the United States will 
never sanction the doctrine that it was intended for the special benefit of 
Missouri. That State, although lying in immediate proximity to the Terri- 
tory of Kansas, can have no other rights there than those which belong 
equally to every State of the Union. I't the construction of the Act sug- 
gested by the Report is to be maintained, it becomes indeed " a question 
of fearful import" how far such legislation is "compatible with the rights 
and liberties of the people." 

Since all the various Emigrant Aid Societies of the country have equal 
rights in the Territory of Kansas, no exception can be taken to the action ot 
any one of them, so long as it confines itself to legitimate objects, and em- 
ploys only just and lawful means to accomplish its ends. 

The objects of the New England Emigrant Aid Company are just and 
lawful. The means which it employs are are legal and proper. The dis- 
turbances in Kansas are attributed by the Report to the " unusual and ex- 
traordinary means " used " to stimulate an unnatural and false system of emi- 
gration," " with a view of controlling the elections in Kansas." A simple 
statement of the facts is a sufficient refutation of this error. 

It was early perceived, by the originators of this Company, that a portion 
of the immense emigration, which every year seeks the West, from the 
Northern and Eastern States, might be directed towards Kansas. Infor- 
mation was eagerly sought for, in regard to its character and resources, and 
its adaptation to the wants of settlers. The Company obtained and supplied 
the needed inforination — facilitated the passatre of those Mho wished to cfo, 
by aidmg them to unite into parties, that they might make the journey more 



coHTeniently and cheaply — and invested capital in the Territory in sach en* 
terprises as would be most useful to the newly arrived settlers. These are 
the only " unusual and extraordinary means" which it has employed. 

It is well known that one of the chief difficulties which the settlers in 
a new country have to contend with, is the want of capital for the support 
of those undertakings to which the means of individuals are inadequate. 
It has been one of the first objects of the Company to supply this want, 
by the erection of hotels, mills, and machinery; by favoring the establish- 
ment of schools and churches; and by doinor all in its power to surround 
the settlers, even on their first arrival, with the comforts of civilized and 
cultivated life. It was at the same time the belief of some of the origi- 
nators of the Company, that such investments of capital, while in the 
highest degree useful to the emigrants, would also in the end prove profit- 
able to the Company itself, as the population should increase, and the 
value of permanent property in the Territory be thereby enhanced. It 
must be apparent, therefore, that the whole plan of the Company's opera- 
tions is based on the idea of ?i permanent settlement of the Territory. Its 
investments are made in property which has a permanent local value, but 
which would be worthless unless surrounded by an active and energetic 
population. It could be no part of its plan, therefore, to send persons to 
Kansas for a temporary residence there. 

Neither does it offer inducements to any persons to emigrate, by paying 
for their passage to the Territory. It has, in iact, never paid the passage of 
an emigrant, believing that its funds could be more usefully applied to per- 
manent investments in Kansas. The class of persons in New England 
who would have been induced to go by such means is not large, but still 
smaller, it is to be hoped, is the number of those who could be "hired" 
to go to Kansas, to remain there only temporarily, for the base and dis- 
honest purpose of interfering with the elections in the Territory. The 
charge that this Company has sent emigrants ihe long journey of fifteen 
hundred miles, for the mere purpose of voting at elections, is therefore 
not only unjust, but absurd. 

Those who have gone to Kansas under the auspices of this Company 
had the means to pay for the journey, and the ability and the will to work 
for the support of themselves and their families there. They have gone 
of their own accord, and at their own expense. The energy, persever- 
ance, and honorable ambition, which lead them to forsake the comforts of 
civilized life, and seek a home in a distant and unsettled region, and which 
have enabled them to acquire the means for so doing, are precisely the 
qualities which render them the most valuable and desirable class of set- 
tlers for a new country, A few who went out without a sufficient acquaint- 
ance with the difficulties and hardships incident to pioneer life, became 
discouraged, and wished to return. But the number of these is small, 
compared with those who remain as permanent residents in the Territory. 

This Company has made no conditions with the emigrants. All per- 
sons, whether fi-om the North or the South, who wished to go to Kan- 
sas, and were able to pay for the passage, have been at liberty to join its 
parties. Its hope and desire are, that all who go should be and remain 
bona fide settlers. It asks no questions as to their political opinions. It 
exacts no pledge or promise, either express or implied, as to their con- 
duct or vote. Such a pledge would be equally dishonorable to those who 
gave and to those who received it. They are free and independent citi- 
zens on the soil of Kansas, as they have been on that of Massachusetts or 
New Hampshire. 

While entirely disclaiming-, on the part of this Company, any improper 



interference with the internal affairs of the Territory of Kansas, or any 
design to control the political or social conduct of its citizens, we have 
always hoped and expected that the emigrants who go out under its aus- 
pices would favor the establishment of free institutions there. It is for 
their interest to make Kansas a free State. The character of the men is, 
in itself, a sufficient guaranty that they will do so. They are men of in- 
dustry and enterprise, who believe in hard work, and are accustomed to it. 
Such men cannot fail to carry with them, wherever they go, a love for the 
institutions which recognise the dignity of labor, and allow to every man 
the just reward of his toil. But the very independence of character which 
these institutions have fostered, would lead them to repel the slightest at- 
tempt on the part of this Company to exercise any control over their con- 
duct. 

We have sufficiently shown the method of proceeding of the Company 
which we represent. Societies formed in other sections of the Union 
have adopted difierent methods. Some associations have hired men to 
go to Kansas, have supplied them with arms, and proposed to support them 
in the Territory, for the avowed purpose of controlling the elections by vio- 
lence and fraud, and by intimidation of the peaceable bonajiJe settlers. The 
disturbances in Kansas have been the " natural consequence " of these ille- 
gal acts, and it is both unjust and illogical to attribute them to the influence 
of a Company whose only object is to aid in the peaceable and permanent 
settlement of the Territory by legitimate means, rather than to the action 
of societies, the direct tendency of whose proceedings is to produce 
hostile collision and bloodshed. 

IV. Another error of the Report is the statement that this Company 
has invested its capital in " cannon and rifles, in powder and lead, and 
in all the implements of war." 

The assertion is utterly untrue. The Company has never imiested a dol- 
lar in cannon or rijies, in powder or lead, or in any of the implements of war. 
It was established solely for peaceable and legal objects, and it has been no 
part of its plan to engage in any of the pursuits of war. The first emi- 
grants who went to Kansas under its auspices were mostly unarmed, or 
provided only with such weapons as were intended for the ordinary pur- 
poses of pioneer life. They had no intention or expectation of beimr 
obliged to use them in any other way. They relied on the faith of the 
Government that actual settlers should be protected in their rightful occu- 
pation of the soil. 

Subsequent events have shown that this reliance was unfounded. The 
Territory has been invaded at various times by armed men from the neigh- 
boring States, in defiance of law, and the inhabitants have been obliged 
to resort to such means of self-defence as they could obtain, for protection 
at the ballot-box, for the safety of their homes and families, and for the 
preservation of their towns and villages from destruction. So far as the 
facts have come to our knowledge, they have always used these meana 
judiciously and well — never interfering with the rights of others, but 
ready and determined to maintain their own. 

Their patience and forbearance under every species of provocation and 
insult, while they still hoped for a peaceful redress of their grievances by 
law; their wisdom and prudence under circumstances of unexampled trial 
and difficulty; and their brave and determined conduct on occasions when 
forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, and it had become necessary to 
repel violence by force, have commanded our respect and admiration. So 
long as they were exposed only to the attacks of lawless bands, acting 
without even the pretence of authority of the Government, they have been 



able to defend themselves. But the intolerable wrongs and grievances 
which they now sufTer, under color of hiw, call loudly upon the Govern- 
ment and the country for redress. The inhabitants of Kansas demand 
only justice, and protection for their rights as citizens and freemen. They 
have never designed to resist the execution of the laws of Congress, but, 
in their brave and uncompromising resistance to lawless invasion and 
violence, they stand on the broad principles of the inalienable right of self- 
defence, and the liberties guarantied to every citizen by the Constitution 
of the United States. 

We believe that a full recognition of the principle that actual settlers 
should control the institutions of the Territory, and an acceptance by Con- 
gress of the Constitution and form of Government which they have chosen 
would be a full and complete remedy for all the evils under which they 
now labor. 

V. The statements of the Report in regard to the supposed violence 
and hostility of Northern and Eastern emigrants, in passing through Mis- 
souri, are also erroneous. Although our communication with the citizens of 
Missouri, as well as those of Kansas, is frequent and direct, we have never 
known of an instance of the violence referred to. The Missouri river is 
one of the common highways of the nation, and its waters are as free to 
the citizens of all the States as those of the harbors of our Eastern coast. 
That the emigrants passing up that river to Kansas have expressed senti- 
ments, on political and social questions, differing from those entertained 
by many of the citiz.ens of Missouri, is perhaps true. Their right to enter- 
tain or express such sentiments cannot, certainly, be doubted. But we 
are sure that they have never committed any acts of violence or hostility, 
or interfered with the domestic institutions of that State. The incon- 
veniences and annoyances, however, to which emigrants from the East 
are sometimes subjected, in their passage through Missouri, and the risk 
to life and property often encountered, have turned the attention of parties 
to other routes to Kansas, which will probably soon be completed by the 
extension of the lines of railroad now in process of construction through 
the State of Iowa. By the opening of these routes, the citizens of Missouri 
will probably be relieved in a great degree of their "apprehensions" of 
"danger" from the peaceable emigrants to Kansas. 

VL The views expressed in the Report, respecting this Company, are 
not those which are entertained by the citizens of Kansas. Every mail 
from the Territory brings us assurances of this fact. The inhabitants of 
that region do not attribute to us any design to conrrol their political ac- 
tion, but they regard our investment of capital there as of great advantage 
to the settlers, and we have been constantly urged to make new invest- 
ments to a greater extent than our resources have heretofore allowed. 

The interest, however, which recent events have awakened in all por- 
tions of the country in the welfare of Kansas, has had the effect to increase 
the resources of the Company, and it intends to continue to make such 
investments, to the full extent of its means. The emigration to Kansas 
from all parts of the country still continues, stimulated no doubt by the 
action of Emigrant Aid Societies, both at the South and at the North. 
Experience has shown that the proceedings even of some of those whose 
views on the suhject of the settlement of Kansas are antagonistic to our 
own, have essentially aided in the success of this Company. It has been 
found that a largo number of the emigrants to Kansas, from the Southern 



as well as from the Northern States, so soon as they have become perma- 
nent settlers, have recognised and desired to participate in the benefit of 
its operations. 

The number of emigrants who have gone to Kansas under the direct 
auspices of this Company is not large, compared with the great numbers 
from the Northern and Western States who have been encouraged to go 
there by the knowledge of its transactions. The actual capital employed 
by the Company is much less than it is represented by the lieport, amount- 
ing indeed to but a small part of the sum allowed by its charter. But it 
has suited the designs of those who oppose it, to make exaggerated state- 
ments of the character of its operations, and to misrepresent its purposes. 
It has done what it could, in a peaceable, legal, and constitutional way, to 
aid in the settlement of Kansas by a population of freemen. It will con- 
tinue to exert all its influence to the accomplishment of that great end, 
without regard to misrepresentation and abuse, from whatever quarter they 
may come. 

The number of the stockholders of this association now amounts to 
nearly one thousand, and is steadily increasing. Among its members are 
persons eminent for intelligence, moral character, and high social position 
and influence — men of every class and profession in lile, and the repre- 
sentatives of every political party. No one, in a community where they 
are known, would venture to attribute to them any unjust or improper de- 
signs. But since, from a misapprehension of their motives, a Committee 
of the Senate of the United States has been led into grave errors in respect 
to them ; and as such errors have been widely circulated and, if not cor- 
rected, may injuriously aff"ect the interests of Kansas, we have thought it 
expedient to make this public denial of all the charges against this Com- 
pany. 

WILLIAM B. SPOONER, 

J. M. S. WILLIAMS, 

ELI THAYER, 

S. CABOT, Jr., 

R. P. WATERS, 

L. B. RUSSELL, 

C. J. HIGGINSON, 

EDWARD E. HALE, 
Executive Commiitee of the JV. E, Emigrant Aid Co. 

Boston, June 17, 1856. 



The officers of the Corporation chosen at the annual meeting. May 
27th, 1856, are as follows, viz: 

President— iOn}^ CARTER BROWN, of Providence, R. I. 

Vice Presidents — Eli Thayer, of Worcester, Mass. ; J. M. S. Wil- 
liams, of Cambridge, Mass. 

Treasurer — Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston. 

Assistant Treasurer — Anson J. Stone, of Boston. 

Secretary — Thomas H. Webb, of Boston. 

Directors — Wm. B. Spooner, Samuel Cabot, Jr., M. D., John Lowell, 
Le Baron Russell, M. D., Charles J. Higginson, Samuel G. Howe, M. D., 



•;8 

Georfe B. Upton, Patrick T. Jackson, all of Boston; Wm. J. Rotch, New 
Bedford; J. P. Williston, Northampton; Wui. Dudley Pjckman, Salem i 
R. P. Waters, Beverly; R. A Chapman, Springfield ; Charles H. Bigelow, 
Lawrence; Nathan Durfee, Fall River; Wm. Willis, Portland, Me.; Icha- 
bod Goodwin, Portsmouth, N. H. ; Thomas M. Edwards, Keene, N. H. ; 
Albert Day, Hartford, Ct. ; John Bertram, Salem ; George Rowland, Jr., New 
Bedford; Francis Wayland, D. D., Providence, R. I.; Edward Everett 
Hale, Worcester; Seth Padelford, Providence, R. I.; Samuel Boyd Tobey, 
M. D., Providence, R. I. ; Prof. Benjamin Silliman, New Haven, Ct. ; 
Hora6e Bushnell, D. D., Hartford, Ct. ; Moses H. Grinnell, New York ; 
Wm. CuUen Bryant, New York; Henry H. Elliott, New York; Edwin 
D. Morgan, New York ; Henry C. Bowen, New York; Horace B. Claflin, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Edward W. Fiske, Brooklyn, New York ; and J. L. 
Bailey, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Executive Committee — Messrs. William B. Spooner, J. M. S. Williams, 
Eli Thayer, S. Cabot, Jr., M. D., R. P. Waters, Le Baron Russell, M. D., 
Charles J. Higginson, and E. E. Hale. 

Attest: THOMAS H. WEBB, Secretary. 



WASHINGTON, D, C. 

BUBLL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 
1856. 



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